Parceiros

There are approximately 3,3 billions of men on this planet. And most probably more than half of them have some emotional relationship with Ferrari or they won't say no to a reasonable priced Ferrari! Honestly, this is a dream; a reasonable priced Ferrari !?! I guess this could happen when the premium of exchange shifts from money to something else :) Practically impossible!

This impossible dream now possible :) You can have a Ferrari, actually a Limited Edition model just for €8500! This is not a joke and it is brand new. It has an engine, couple of wheels, it goes forward and backward also and this is not a toy. And it is not fake either :) All of these just for €8500 and you can order it from internet.

The ugly truth of this story is; €8500 Ferrari is a Segway! Segway was suppose to be the most impressive invention of 21th century, a new way of transportation. It has only two wheels and you stand while you are driving it. I am pretty sure that, you saw this thing somewhere. Once I had chance to drive and it was something very interesting. This interesting senseless invention can be ordered from Ferrari Store Website for €8500. Honestly, this is the only Segway which can be driven. It looks really nice, especially the Ferrari touching parts made it very sympathetic.

If you are planning to buy this thing, just order the Ferrari edition, at least you could a Ferrari which can be driven to everywhere :)

As you might have noticed, I don't write on weekends. Because, people don't bother to use their computers. However, time to time there are exceptions for me, like today. Couple of months ago, Mini revealed the semi naked SUV concept car (Mini Beachcomber), which was like a haute couture of Mini. Haute couture is a type of clothes which are only made for Paris Fashion Show (Please correct me, if I am wrong). And they stay as haute couture, the marketing department does not willing to sell them just to increase their profit. Because, they may not be ideal for daily life. This Mini is the same; an SUV which does not offer any door, any top or anything which will help to cover the car! And it suppose to be an SUV.

This crazy idea was a concept car, which means it may not go into production and save automotive world from a ridiculous model! But Munich (BMW HQ) decided to produce this pointless SUV! And they told that, Mini never reveals a concept car which won't go on production. That's great! If you said this sentences in a movie like Gladiator, everyone will love it and you will be adored! But this is real life and you need to think twice sometimes. Especially, automotive industry; as the industry has a very bad reputation for introducing useless cars during last decade!

On paper everything might look nice, of course on paper economic crisis is a just a two words not more than that! This is the same, naked SUV! A new niche market which will be offering a unique way to injure yourself while driving it. Come on BMW, you are offering a four wheel drive car which does not even have a proper door! This is worse than anything else. I really wonder who is going to buy this? I can imagine this answer from Jeremy Clarkson but I am not going to write it here.

I am pretty sure that, there are many people who are ready to buy this car. However, those people will not help Mini to sustain its profit level. Because, they will buy this ridiculous car just to be different nothing else!

Anyway, whatever people say or write, BMW will produce this car and it will be a great material for Top Gear to entertain us. I am looking forward to hear the jokes and meet with people who will buy this naked SUV :) My opinion? Keep some concepts cars as concept!

Consumption is very funny and very complicated to understand in some situations. Recently Apple introduced something which is called iPad! It is a machine which was designed by photocopy machine. Apple just increased the zoom and photocopied the iPhone's design and send it to production. It looks just look a big mobile phone! However the material used in iPad makes it very exquisite, I cannot ignore this. But this does not help us to understand why we should buy a iPad? It is netiher a mobile phone nor a computer! It is between mobile phone and laptop !?! Is there a segment like that? Of course no, Apple just made it up!

Basically; nobody knows what iPad is, how we can use and why we should buy it! But many people bought it. I am pretty sure that, many of them have no idea what to do with iPad and found out that Apple is charging for every single extra! I am sure that, when you ask to Apple, they will send you a booklet why you should buy an iPad and help Steve to buy a bigger yacht! That's the only reasonable reason to buy iPad, just to make Steve rich :) Despite all these adverse things, Apple made a huge success! I guess Steve was impressed by the German car manufacturers while designing the iPad ;)

German car companies are the expert of creating new segments. Mercedes M Class, BMW X6, Mercedes CLS, BMW X1 are icons of new segmentation! And they all sold very well. Like iPad, German car companies are charging for extra single option! However Apple missed one point, German car companies are defining their new segment very clear and customers know what they are buying. When you buy a Mercedes CLS, you don't expect to go off road or with BMW X6, you won't be the king of Nürburgring! So everything was very clear until this! BMW 5 GT.

I am proud to announce that BMW 5 GT is the father of Apple iPad! Their DNAs are the same; they both very expensive, both of them charging money for any option, both trying to create a new segment and both are senseless! Why? Because, nobody knows why we should one these! I have no single idea why to buy a 5 GT !?! Actually 5 GT is not a coupe, it is lifted estate car without four wheel drive option. It is neither SUV nor estate and definitely not a sedan. So why we should buy one?

There is one reason for buying these pointless products. You would probably be willing to give this message to universe; I have lots of money to buy anything and I have no idea about cars and computers, and I want to be different. So when you combine these points, there is a one reason to buy a 5 GT and iPad! Just to show off :) I think iPad should be bundled with 5 GT ;)

Actually, I would prefer to buy BMW 5 GT. At least, it is very well designed, engineered car with many intelligent features. And you won't need another car to drive this car :)

Porsche 911 is the most iconic car which you can buy. 911 did not lost its soul and character more than forty years and it is the perfection of automotive. From the door handle to steering wheel, 911 is the top level of automotive engineering. Making the same car for more than forty years is not something very usual to see in automotive industry, especially a normal life cycle of a car is seven years. After that seven years, only the brand remains the same, the rest totally changes. But in 911, nothing has changed since it was first designed!

However, during last forty years marketing has changed! And we learned something called product range extension! This is helps to increase produce range by offering different kind of tastes, like Louis Vuitton is offering the same hand bag with different cover but they are the same! I am sure that if you ask Louis Vuitton, they can tell you one hundred different reasons why they are offering the same handbag with different looking! Interestingly, this is the same with Porsche 911. Now it has more than fourteen different types.

You can have 911 Carrera or Carrera 4 or Carrera S or Carrera 4S or Turbo or Turbo S or GT2 RS or GT3 or GT3 RS and this goes like that forever. You have to study for one month to memorize every single model! Like Louis Vuitton, it is a bit annoying. Because, Porsche is charging different prices for minor differences even the Ferdinand Porsche cannot realize those details.

I am sure, you can understand the difference in Nürburgring. Yes, all of us hang out in Nürburgring everyday! I wanted to find out the differences, but I didn't go to Germany I just log onto their website. And I wanted to find out what are the differences of 911 GT2 RS, GT3 and GT3 RS!

Basically, they are all same. Designed for circuit, when you drive them in daily basis, your lungs will change their places with your kidneys. They are aimed to be light and to be fast. They are not offering much comfort and this will kill your back! Actually, I analysed their technical details but I don't want to write them here. What I found out is, Porsche 911 GT2 RS is the best option. It is the fastest, the most economical, the lightest and the hugs trees with the lowest emission levels.

So if you are going to buy a hardcore Porsche 911, you don't need to look for each model! Just buy the 911 GT2 RS which develops 620 horsepower, reaches 100 km/h in 3,5 seconds and top speed of 330 km/h! Who cares the other options ;) For Louis Vuitton, I think you should prefer the cheapest one, because they don't offer any detail :)

If you are interested on cars, you would probably know about Maybach. Mercedes's ultra luxury brand which has a worse sales performance than any wheeled vehicle on earth! Since it was on market, it was not able to reach a sustainable sales performance. After the Rolls Royce Phantom introduced on market, Maybach's market share shrunk more and more! Main problem was Mercedes's mentality, they thought that; if we put millions of chips and technology and ignore design, we can sell it. Unfortunately, customers of ultra luxury segment do not care that much of your sophisticated technology as you predicted!

As the years have passed, Maybach situation became worse and worse. Mercedes recently discussed to shut down the brand in future, may be! While these rumours are around, a company in Germany designed a coupe version of Maybach. And they transformed the most boring ultra luxury car into something really looking good :) The boring looking Maybach changed totally by turning into a coupe. Mercedes should have released this model years ago and save the brand!

In my opinion, it is one of the best looking luxury coupe on market! And I am sure that Maybach coupe will have much better sales performance than the normal Maybach. Honestly, any car which is selling more than 200 per year has better performance than Maybach!

For many years Mercedes was the leader of automotive market. Mercedes was the introducers of many technologies. What you see in a Mercedes will be available in other cars sooner. I still remember the times when Mercedes was the first company to offer five speed automatic gearbox! Many competitors like Audi and BMW offered five speed automatic gearbox later and in many model they were quite late.

Time has passed and competitors started to offer more than Mercedes. Yes, that's true! Unfortunately, Mercedes stuck on five speed automatic gearbox and still that's the only gearbox if you have four cylinder engine. Of course, Mercedes is offering seven speed automatic in V6 and V8 engine range but in cheaper models, gearbox is cheaper also!

A few days ago Audi announced that wide range of models will have eight speed automatic gearbox! Yes, eight not five or seven! It means, Audi will be more economic, more efficient, more silent and more, more! And it also means, Mercedes is started to losing the game.

What Mercedes is doing is like selling a new computer which has a hard drive only capable of storing one picture of you. Yes, Mercedes is offering a new computer with 500 MB hard drive. Hopefully, as far as I heard, they will be offering seven speed automatic gearbox in near future. But I don't know how near it that :) I hope Mercedes will remember to count after five :)

Last one year was very hard for US car makers. They lost their kingdom and defeated by Japanese car makers. Everything went very bad for them. US car makers were the king of automotive industry and nearly one hundred years later, they survived only with the help of huge amount credits! A few days ago GM was saying thank you to everyone and this flashed some ideas in my mind.

Of course, US car markers tried their best to be worst :) Hummer, huge petrol sucking V8s, ignoring diesel or any other alternative and designing car which were uglier than anything. Did they change their mentality? Of course no! Still you can find huge SUVs with huge petrol engines, they are not offering some different since one decade. Even last year's trauma did not make any change. Actually, I am sure that many people in those companies are doing their best to safe their company but the mentality of company does not change in one night!

And ten years ago something else came into our life! Google. We did not understand how created a relationship with Google but now our whole life relies on Google. Without we cannot even do very basic stuff :) And Google shares something in common with US car companies! They are in same country, one firm is making fortune, the other one is dying.

So my suggestion, transfer people from Google to car companies in US and let Google guys to do your marketing and product design. They don't know automotive industry but how worse can it be? Really! You all know automotive industry and we know the story. So, how worse can it get? Actually, Google guys are very good that designing new products and on marketing strategies. Give them a chance ;)

Every new Ferrari always claims to be faster than other models. Ferrari 458 is faster than F430 was faster than F360 Modena and story goes like this. And every time it is getting harder to claim the new car is faster than the other. Because, they are approaching to the limits of physics for rear wheel cars! You can see from the zero to one hundred acceleration performance figures. Every new models is lower the number just couple of milliseconds or something like that. Ferrari just revealed a new 599; 599 GTO and it is only faster than the normal 599 by just 0.35 seconds for 0-100km/h acceleration! 0.35 seconds cannot be understood by normal human being unless you can feel how far your hair grow every morning.

But in terms of marketing this 0.35 seconds means a lot :) It is technically faster than previous model and also it is much faster in circuit and it goes on like this. The problem here is being rear wheel driven, as the power is sent just to tyres, they are not able to cope with so much power and they start to lose traction despite the help of electronic systems. And it is becoming very hard to lower acceleration values. If you are saying Bugatti needs only 2.4 seconds to reach 100 km/h, that is four wheel drive car!

In near future, Ferrari might need to define their acceleration value in terms of quantum mechanics. Because, it will be nearly impossible to calculate and totally impossible to realize the difference but marketing team have to do something and they will evaluate the acceleration value with quantum mechanics. So that, we won't understand how fast the new Ferrari but we do know that it is so fast that even the normal physics cannot be able to calculate.

For long years, you have been searching for a car which could reflect the Hercule inside your soul and you could not find it :( All the car catalogs are filled with extremely sharp and clean pictures of vehicles. And you motivation for finding your soul mates flatten outs!

But it is over now! This is the picture of Mercedes G Class! Yes, this is a real four wheel drive and it is really good at off road! You can do whatever you want to do. After seeing this pictures, you will definitely feel yourself like Alexander The Great and travel until the end of the world! While going end of the world, consider the fuel prices :)

PR footages are important to reflect brand identity to targeted customers and create a brand equity on society. So that, people will associate positive notions to brand! When we talk about PR, we cannot ignore the importance of USA. Some people assume that, PR born in USA. Actually they are not wrong either!

Today I found the Chevrolet's old PR footages. Unlike contemporary ones, they are very long and you start to get bore! Of course, in 1930s there were no ratings or huge prices for commercials because, there were nearly no TV at all. Anyway; let's go back to Chevrolet's PR footage. We could clear see that, production is taken very seriously and the messages are the most interesting ones on earth. I think none of the PR activity of campaign offered these kinds of message to people.

Let me tell you some of the very interesting messages! You can drive your car through the railway to reach Key West and also the magnificent suspension will eliminate the adverse effects of the road. Really? Chevrolet is officially motivating drivers to drive on railway! And their car will be driving smoothly. We can clearly see, at those years their sense of safety was just nearly to nothing. You can drive your on railway and hit by a train, what a coincident! I think they have missed that point, but that's something not very important. Of course their stupendous messages do not stop here. Chevrolet is also advising drivers to carry 20 girls outside their car. Yes; not inside, outside and top of the car! And you will be driving along Miami Beach with girls hanging out of your car. If they fell off, let's don't think about that.

Many years have passed from this funny footage and now we have many safety regulations for everything and unless you won't be looking for the most idiotic car company on earth nobody will ever release a footage like this! However, Chevrolet still insists to produce suspension which could run smoothly on rail road. Of course, they are not advising to drive on it but the quality of the suspension did not change. Still no handling and still car is diving up and down along the road.

Four years ago on Fifth Gear Jon Bentley drove something very extra ordinary! Actually the car was not that extra ordinary but its ability was extra ordinary. It was a normal VW Golf GTi. I know, that's not something very special. You can see Golf GTi anytime on street!

However, there was something different underneath this Golf! It was cleaver :) Thanks to its laser radar, Golf is able to learn what the obstacles are around! And Golf was not doing this just to show off. It was doing this to learn its path which will be driven by its own. This Golf had an auto pilot, like an air plane and unlike air plane you don't have to take off by yourself. You just need to start the engine. Anyway, this prototype model was designed to go around cones!

Now it is 2010 and VW did not go on wintersleep for four years. They really worked hard with Stanford University. And the result is; a VW Passat Estate which is able to make a J turn and park itself. Yes, the cleaver boys from Standford spend their hours to calculate how to make a J turn with computer. Actually, they could have asked many people it is not that complicated. Anyway, they formulated as F = m a. Honestly, I don't know how they manage to shortened this manoeuvre with only three letter :)

In the end, they manage to make this complicated maneuver with the help of silicone chips :) What we learn from these experiences? Silicons are not only used for making boobs bigger; VW never sleeps for long time and in future if Microsoft makes a car, we would probably hitting to each other in every second :)

Honestly, VW and Stanford University made a remarkable excellent job :) Even if we trained to do that turn, we cannot learn that quickly!

Recently I read a news about Ferrari's hybrid future. Due to government pressure, Ferrari will reveal a hybrid model on 2015! Why? Because, emission levels must go down. Very reasonable! Ferrari was the mother of global warming and when they offer hybrid Ferrari, world will be saved :)

But I am pretty sure that, many people will disagree with me and they will say; do you know the emission created by a Ferrari! They are consuming our future. A Ferrari is consuming and polluting our future? What future! I think you never seen or heard of Ferrari. Ferrari cannot be used like a stupid Toyota Corolla every day. Because, it does not have even have a proper boot. Yes, you cannot go to grocery and shop when you drive with a Ferrari.

There is not space. Yes, there is but you have to buy nearly nothing to fill it. And Ferrari's are not very comfortable for daily driving. They are designed for different purposes. So, many Ferrari live their life staying in garage for long time and been driven just for weekends. There are only very few people are using their full potential and they are not doing that all the time!

If Ferrari is destroying and polluting our future, Christian Louboutin shoes have the same effect on ecological system. As they are made from real leather and every lady wants to own one and they do everything to buy one, so this increase the demand on leather and ecological chain will be destroyed :)

In summary, hybrid Ferrari's impact on emissions levels are less then Christian Louboutin's impact on leather business.

Couple of days ago I heard a music from Greek radio Sfera FM and it was Sakis Rouvas's new song "Spase Ton Xrono" (I hope I wrote it correctly). Like everyone, I searched on YouTube to watch its video clip but instead of video clip, I found a live performance! That was fine but the interesting thing, the girls' voice was stronger than the Sakis's voice! I guess the audience is female and as far as I know whole Greek girls love Sakis, so even if he does not sing, they will shouting :) For those of you, who doesn't know Sakis; he is a Greek musician, nearly every girls' dream and has fourteen albums (If I am wrong, please correct me!).

Now let's come to Porsche 911, you know 911 47 year old king!. As I always said; 911 is the ultimate, the best designed, the art of engineering, the exquisite, the sense of passion! That's the best car on earth! If you have money, you must buy a 911 not a Cayenne or Boxster or other contemporary Porsche models. First you must buy 911 later on you can buy a contemporary Porsche. Sorry "must" grammar structure.

Anyway, you could understand how the 911 is making many people very excited. I can understand Greek girls love Sakis and how they get excited. Many 911 lover however don't shout when we see a 911:)

Porsche knows this fact and they made a PR film about 911 and its charm!

There’s the moment you know you want one, there’s the moment you first own one and for the truly afflicted there’s the decade or two that passes in between. Porsche

It was 1997, when I first saw the Mercedes CLK GTR! Many of us may forgot that magnificent car. It was a CLK but that was limited to three letters only! CLK GTR was a real super car in every single detail. It was a car that was showing how Mercedes can built a super car like Ferrari. It was excellent from every angle. And honestly; it was beyond it time, like 300 SLR.

I am pretty sure that in fifty years time, it will be the sold on auctions for couple of million dollars. Unlike stupid SLR and ridiculous SLS AMG. CLK GTR had a sole, nowadays you cannot find this on any Mercedes vehicle. Now they have to share everything single part with daily cars; engine, interior and etc. Now they are offering unique names like SLS or SLR but the rest is senseless. Actually they are so senseless that in future Mercedes will be regret have them and they will be forgotten in the past. Probably some car magazine will show the SLR and SLS AMG as what Mercedes was doing in 2000s.

However CLK GTR will be the master piece in future. It was sharing part but they made a great harmony, so that it was not annoying like current models. It was totally piece of art. Especially its unique design makes it more exquisite and different than current models. Even today, CLK GTR is phenomenon! I have never seen one in my life and I am pretty sure that, if I see one day I won't forget that moment. However I saw SLR many times but it did not make any sense and I am pretty sure that SLS AMG will create the same reaction. Those cars do not have the attraction like CLK GTR, you don't dream to buy a SLR or SLS AMG when you could buy Ferrari 599 or Porsche 911 Turbo. Because, they are cheaper and better looking and also offering more!

I hope that we will see new super car Mercedes after the catastrophic SLS AMG incident! Eventually, Mercedes remembered that they have made a super car and they have released a video of it on Youtube.

Diesel engine became popular and eye catching like the contemporary designers in a department store. Nearly every car and many brands are offering diesel engine even in their cabrio models, actually Porsche has a diesel SUV! Life without diesel is nearly impossible and hopefully they don't make black smoke and annoying noise anymore :)

However diesel engines have a secret! Diesel engine has a different principle than the petrol engine. Diesel doesn't need to have a sparkplug to make combustion. In petrol engines, sparkplug is exploding the petrol and rotates the cranks shaft. But in diesel, just a high compression is enough to make that explosion. Why I am telling all these thing? Because, diesel has a really unknown disadvantage!

Diesel engine can run without diesel fuel! Yes, that's true. Even the engine oil is enough to run diesel engine. Actually, many people knew this. However the critical point is; any mistake made while filling the engine oil ends up cracking down the engine. If the engine oil is more than necessary, engine will start to run by itself and you cannot control the engine. Unless you put into gear and screw gearbox or until the engine oil finishes! Therefore, diesel engine should have a emergency button to release engine oil in these conditions. Don't think that, this does not happen that often but it happens and when it happens you really don't want to see that! Also, worn out diesel engines have that risk. As the engine oil is involved in combustion, after sometime engine can run by engine oil, you can watch it on video below.

Recently Volvo announced that, some of their diesel engine is accelerating without throttle response. This means, engine oil is on the game! I think Volvo knew this also. Believe this is worse than Toyota's throttle problem. Once the engine starts to run with oil, that's game over!

If you are not living in UK now, I am pretty sure that weather is very nice and you are not reading this blog :) However, if you are in a place where the weather is totally catastrophic, I have a surprise for you.

Last year, I spotted a Ferrari Enzo in Knightsbridge, London. Due to low quality of Nokia E71 mobile phone, pictures are not that good but at least I wanted to share my photos with you.

For those of you who have no idea about Ferrari Enzo, that's the Ferrari last super ultra sport car. Built in 2002 until 2004. It is producing 660 horsepower with 675 nm torque (that's something very strong) and has a red line in 8000 rpm. This car is a road version of F1 car! And capable of doing 320 km/h without any hesitation!